Thursday, June 14, 2007

Andrew and I were out with friends gorging at Applebees last weekend (half-priced appetizers after nine you know) and the group got into a good discussion about favorite movies by genre. You're free to chime in with your two cents, here are my picks with a few editorial comments from the group thrown in:

1. Best romantic comedy:While You Were Sleeping. For sheer quotability alone. In fact, if I ever attend a family dinner without someone saying "These mashed potatoes are so creamy . . . Argentina has good beef . . . Caesar Romero was tall" I'll then know my family has been abducted by replaced by alien pod people. But Sandra Bullock and what's-his-nose-romantic-lead are terrific. Love that show. Anyway, it's the best though we agreed Return to Me was also a contender. I thought Runaway Bride was at the top of the list too but no one was with me on that one.

2. Hardest cry:Dead Poet's Society. Took me four or five theater viewings and enough Kleenex to supply a funeral home before I could get through it without sobbing. Not sniffling. Sobbing. Ask Andrew about his Simon Birch experience. I won't humiliate the man here, not in front of the world.

3. Best "heist" movie: I'm going to go with The Italian Job on this one. Though Ocean's 11 and Sneakers are both good too. Oddly enough many of these great films are remakes . . . any other's you'd nominate?

4. Best action movie: Tough one here. I know Carinne would say the "Bourne" series (she's a fan) but I think I may have to go with Casino Royale. Nope, I'm changing my mind. Even my love for the new James Bond can't get past my love for Raiders of the Lost Ark. I still love watching that one. Classic, funny, entertaining, everything's great but Karen Allen.

5. Most inspirational movie: This one's a difficult category. Kendall suggested Ghosts of Mississippi and Andrew said Gandhi, both of which are which are terrific. I think Gandhi nudges out the other by a neck.

6. Best mystery:Dial M for Murder which is perfect in its plot and development though I'm also a fan of M. Knight Shyamalan's movies, with Unbreakable being my favorite.

7. Funniest movie:O Brother Where Art Thou? Every time. And if this movie doesn't convince you the Cohen Brothers are hilarious, then see Raising Arizona. Though (forgive me Carinne) Napolean Dynamite is right there with them.

8. Best animated movie:Finding Nemo. Ellen Degeneres and Al Brooks are the perfect combo and coupled with the parenting-theme I could watch this over and over. And have. That turtle scene gets me every time . . . "takin' on the jellies." Heh.

9. Scariest movie: Putting aside my childhood feelings for Malificent from Sleeping Beauty (what was with those horns??) I'm going to have to say Wait Until Dark. Not because it still scares me but because it's so artfully done and scared me so much the first time I saw it. The movies that really bother me I won't watch (I couldn't make it through Silence of the Lambs even edited on t.v.) so I'll name this Hepburn classic. Poltergeist and Jaws were scary when I was a kid and are both pretty good scares.

10. Best romance: Out of Africa. Though this could also qualify as the Worst Romance too. Worst meaning most tragic, but I love this story. The music, the biplane, the countryside, the accents, everything. Also The Scarlet Pimpernel (the old 80s version with Anthony Edwards and Jane Seymour), Pride and Prejudice (the A&E version of course) could be contenders but they were never regular feature-length releases so they might not count.

11. Best fantasy: This isn't really fair, because Lord of the Rings takes up the top three spots with no competition, but after that I'd say Ron Howard's Willow for--once again--quotability and also because the two brownies are totally Lenny and Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley.

12. Best musical:The Sound of Music. Even Andrew loves it. I still remember having the 8-track cassette in our old rust-colored Chevy Impala station wagon. That and a Dione Warwick album. I liked The Sound of Music soundtrack better, doesn't every kid love the goat-puppet scene?

13. Best sci-fi: Setting aside Star Wars (the obvious choice) I suppose it depends on your definition of science-fiction. Anything with aliens? Probably Close Encounters of the Third Kind (can you even eat mashed potatoes and not think of Richard Dreyfus?) Anything with science? Back to the Future or Contact. I like those too. This is probably the toughest category.

14. Best classic (pre-1980): Charade. Or maybe Rear Window (in my dreams I dress like Grace Kelly did in that one). Though Roman Holiday gets me every time.

***

Have you entered this month's Write-Away Contest yet? Deadline is this Saturday night, the theme is traditions.

hi michelle: for romantic comedy, i love sandra bullock in just about anything. but i soooo love the runaway bride movie. such a hoot. oh, i gotta see that puppy again!

i loved the "dead poet's society," but i think my favorite hardest CRY SOB was either "titantic" and or "terms of endearment" back in the 80s.

"casino royale" was sooo enjoyable for me, probably the first time i have totally enjoyed a james bond movie in years. daniel craig nailed it and did so good in his acting!

most inspirational movie for me is "the ultimate gift" -- one of the best movies i have ever seen -- really got to me and made me think and not just a feel good movie, but an "i want to do better" movie. i am buying the DVD as soon as it comes out (and i rarely buy movies).

i loved loved loved that scene in "oh brother where art thou?" when they sang!! what a hoot! and it was apparently really them singing! wow. so funny.

"sound of music" is my fav musical, too. always chokes me up still to this day and i have seen it a million times. great great!

STAR WARS fan big time. no other words necessary :) oh yea, i am a fan, but i do not go to conventions and i do not dress up in their uniforms! :)

I love Oh, Brother Where Art Though? I even quoted it today. I have to say Power of One for most inspirational. Joy Luck Club would win for hardest cried. My roomate and I went on a double date to that movie and cried so hard we were styfulling blubbers. :)

Loved the Futigive, I was pregnant with Grace when I saw it in the theater and nearly went into labor during that train scene. Funny how amazing it was when I saw it but it was so popular and replayed so often that now it looks kind of fake on t.v.

Gattina, if you're a Hugh Grant fan you should see The Englishman who Went up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain. It's really cute.

What??? How can you not like Karen Allen? She has some of the best lines in that movie. My sister and I can't eat together to this day without stuffing our faces, taking a drink of water, and mumbling "I bet you would". My brother named his first son Indiana and I always have to say it the way Allen did, "Indeeeee".

We just saw Raiders on the big screen at our second run theater. It was the first time I had seen it. It was awesome! I love When Harry Met Sally, Romancing the Stone, Yours, Mine & Ours (the old one). Mean Season scared the bejeebers out of me. Great to think about all the great movies there are. I bet it was a lot of fun at Applebees!

Michelle just thought these might be some good ones for you too see if you haven't.

Best Inspitational Movie...Hands down.... The Power of One. Amazing movie. So beatiful and I have see it a million times and I still can't keep my self from crying in the movie. If you haven't seen it...SEE IT!

Best Mystery...The Spanish Prisoner...again...not too many people have seen it, but it is a good suspense twist and turn movie.

And just to throw this one out...for a good scary movie; a scary movie that is actually watchable is Red Eye. Scary enough to keep your cheeks clentch, but not too scary where you can't watch it again. Plus the girl in it is actually really smart and does some great things...you know...instead of just falling and whinning through out the movie! It is a must see scary movie.

I can't believe no one has put down You've Got Mail for romantic comedy. I love that movie!I will have to think about this further and come up with a list of my own favorite movies. So hard to choose though!

Great list. I wouldn't know where to begin. I've NOT seen so many classic and supposedly great movies, my choices for these would not really count.

Here's a few though. I watched Rudy over and over when I went back to college for my engineering degree. Helped me to keep my eye on the prize.

I love the movie Stargate with Kurt Russell for some reason, and have watched it over and over. I thought Contact was a great movie and have watched it and actually think the movie was way better than the book, which is rare for me. I did love the Bourne movies, I thought they did a decent job of capturing the essence of the incredibly complex books, which are some of my all-time favorite books.

I'm not much into comedy movies, but I have seen Waterboy with Adam Sandler many times, maybe because he skewers Louisiana in it. I wasn't offended, I thought it was great.

I had never seen a musical until I met Lovely Wife, and Sound Of Music is a favorite of mine now.

The only movie I remember actually crying, as in sobbing, boo hoo hoo, was the old Jimmy Stewart civil war movie called Shenandoah. When the boy believed to be dead shows up at the end and the family's in church singing a hymn, well, I cried like a crack baby. I get misty even thinking about it now.

I have to add "Terms of Endearment" as the most tear-jerking movie of ALL TIME. Seriously. When Debra Wingeris laying there in the hospital dying, and they bring her kids in to say goodbye. And she tells her oldest son that she knows he loves her...UGH. Can hardly write about it now without choking up. So, so good.

While at my very first sleepover (I was 5 or 6), my friend and I snuck downstairs to see what her teenage sisters and their friends were watching. It was Poltergeist... and one of the teenage boys had to piggyback me back to my house at 11:30 at night. I was freaked out for weeks. Funny thing is I watched it again a few months back and thought "Holy cow, what a dumb movie".

I'm so with you on Willow, but I'd tie it with Princess Bride. But I must beg to differ in sci-fi, and offer Independence Day as a replacement, with the original Planet of the Apes as a close second - or possibly a tie.

Best Romantic Comedy:Say Anything with John Cusack… I love this movie because Lloyd never just gives up on her… he knows enough to know that what they had was real without being a creepy stalker.As Good as it gets is also an amazing movie!Best Classic romantic comedy would be Some like it Hot with Marilyn Monroe!

Hardest Cry:Hotel Rwanda…just get it Crash and My name is Sam are deft tear jerquers too.

Best "heist" movie: The God Father’s

Best Action Movie: Die Hard… I love Bruce Willis

Most insirational movie: Schindlers List and shawshank redemption. and i loved walk the line and Requiem for a Dream is prob my most inspirtantional please go and see it!!

Best mystery: Clue lol I love that movie.

Funniest Movie: Tootsie, Officespace, Billy Madson, Anchor Man, Young Frankenstein, The Graduate, Arsenic and Old Lace, American Graffit, Hook, Liar Liar, Beetle juice, the jerk, Mall rats, theres something about mary there are sooooo many great funny movies I cant just pick one!

Best Animated Movie: Who framed Roger Rabbit, Shreck, Monster House

Scariest movie: It, The Shining, The exocorcist.

Best Romance: Casablanca, west side story, romeo and juliet, singin in the rain, the princess bride, pretty women

Best Sci-Fi: Star wars, Back to the future, x-men, the war of the worlds, x-men

Best Classic: Casablanca tops it amazing flim humprey bogart will blow you away with his none stop amazing lines like “we’ll always have paris” “Play it again” and “out of all the gin joints she could have walked in to, why’d it have to be mine” or something close lol its an amazing flim after that prob breakfast at tiffany’s or the wizard of oz

Great choices. Anyone with a love for Dead Poets Society and Willow will always be welcome in my home. Side story -- my best friend was on a subway last year and saw Knox Overstreet and totally acted like a junior high girl with a crush and timidly approached him, totally blushing, and said, "Um, you're Knox Overstreet." I guess she made his day.

And I have to say, if you tell people who know nothing about the movie Return to Me that it is funny, they will get mad at you about a half hour into and accuse you of lying. I learned this the hard way.

Yep "While you were sleeping" that is one of my favorite movies!!!!stay tuned in a couple of weeks, I will be reinventing my blog, which I have sadly not kept up with....but now I have a friend who is as she puts it inspiring me....I am looking at it as a challange to try to keep up with her.......

For Sci Fi, if you discount Star Wars, I'd go with "Enemy Mine". If you've never seen it, you really need to. There is an intergalactic war and two "men" (one is actually a lizard type guy) crash land while fighting each other on a planet where they have to survive together. . . .unexpected tear jerker in places, funny places-they don't make the cultural difference or languages an easy problem for them to overcome. Just a good movie-has some actual moral content to it.

For sweetest, or maybe romantic I'd have to go with Greencard (although When Harry Met Sally is classic too). Gerard Depardieu is one of those guys who actually manages to not be good looking, but still be sexy. Plus the story where they pretend to be married so he can get his green card and she can get her apartment. . . sigh.

I'm with so many others on Comedy-for pure quotability and satire it is The Princess Bride. My favorite movie of all time. Plus it's such a broad satire of a fairy tale that Princess (6) loves watching it with me. (Be warned, there is one scene where someone is actually run through with a sword and killed-but he is a very bad man. If you don't like kiddos watching that sort of thing you might want to preview) starting with the grandson saying in a disappointed voice "A Book?" and the grandfather saying "That's right, a book. When I was your age, TV was called Books" Best quote "You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!"

I'll probably get stoned, but I think that having the Sound of Music play annually on TV, and then be done by my highschool drama club just burned me out on it. My favorite movie musical (now stage musical would be another ball of wax) is Little Shop of Horrors. Steve Martin's cameo as the Sado-Masochistic Dentist is hilarious, the show is funny and the music is upbeat and singable.

Not a category, but I'm adding it :) Favorite "cult" film: Clerks. It is ribald, but hilarious. That was my favorite movie in my early 20's